2 piece t-shirt

Lately I'd begun to notice that my summer t-shirts were looking pretty shabby. You know, faded, stretched and generally crappy. But I guess that's what happens when you've hardly ventured into a clothes shop in the past 6 years (my big girl is 6). Dragging between 1 and 3 small children through crowded shops is not my idea of fun. For me or them. And in my precious time alone I don't want to be looking at my post pregnancy/breast feeding wobbly bits in brightly lit changing rooms! Plus it's expensive. And often bad quality. I could go on, but you get the picture. Do you feel the same? Or is shopping still fun for you (or was it ever)?

Anyway, I digress... Looking at all the lovely flowy jersey t-shirts around got me thinking about how I love simple shapes and hey, it probably wouldn't be too hard to make one. So I started with Tessuti's 'fave top' pattern (free!) as a basis. I knew I'd have to change it, but boy it looked awful on me. It was probably because my black & white striped knit fabric from my stash was too thick, but it just draped terribly and looked wrong. It consisted of just 2 pieces of fabric, no set in sleeves to deal with, and I liked that and thought it was something I could work with. So I got in and hacked it up, sewed new seems, hacked it up a bit more, sewed a bit more etc til I was happy with the basic shape.

For the hems I turned the edge over twice and sewed a straightstitch. Then, as it was looking a bit plain (and not drapey at all) I added a little pocket to the front (making it 3 pieces, technically). Then some elastic to the edges of the sleeves to give them a bit of shape (the same way I did it here).

Then the hem didn't look quite right so it got the elastic treatment too. As you can see its pretty rough, but I do like the bit of shape it adds and the visual link back to the sleeves makes me happy in a sewing-nerd kinda way.

So there you go, a bit of creativity with the scissors and sewing machine. I highly recommend it over jostling with teenagers and loud music while trailing tantruming toddlers and preschoolers behind ;-)

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In other sewing news my Minoru jacket is underway and I'm sooo enjoying it, trying not to stay up really late each night sewing. It's so tempting though!

I love... bird motifs

I'm not sure what it is about them, but I'm drawn to bird motifs in jewelry, and in particular brooches. These are some that I'm covetting lately.

Sadly I seem to have lost my beautiful yellow Elk birdy brooch. I keep thinking it will turn up in a jacket pocket or underneath the sofa, or somewhere equally boring, but he's been gone several months and still no word...

L-R Khaki bird ring Birdy stack brooch Tasmanian oak bird brooch
Silver brooch Elk fat birdy brooch Seagull wooden brooch

Green. Not just for frogs, apparently.

Years ago I remember a friend I worked with telling me that her favourite colour was green. I thought she was extremely unusual and a little bonkers! I distinctly remember thinking that green was still considered quite unfashionable and had been in the doghouse for a long long time - since the 80's. I guess there had been such a swing away from the 70's oranges and greens and it just didn't fit with the fluoro pink and yellow and that smurf blue that was everywhere... this was my perception anyway (maybe it was otherwise out in the big wide world :-). When I studied design I found colour theory fascinating and started to see what factors came into play as far why I liked or disliked a colour. But still I couldn't help being influenced by the trends of the time.



But, as I admitted with yellow a while ago, this old foe, the murky, dirty, slimy green has become intriguing to me, and worked it's way into my home, lifestyle and wardrobe. I very suddenly realised this recently when I looked down and noticed I was wearing head to toe green, in varying shades, apart from my toenails (don't think I'll go there yet, but never say never!).

To Sarah: you were way ahead of me and I am now totally reformed... any current tips? :-)

Creative business - 'Cloth'

A quick shot of Cloth's front window

On the weekend I had a quick visit to the Cloth shop to buy fabric scraps to use for some projects I have in mind. The artist/designer/owner Julie Patterson happened to be there. I've watched her business grow and noticed her pop up in the media now and then, and always admired her style. She's a design icon to me. Once I got over a bit of shyness I asked her some questions about creativity and business.

The many beautiful fabric designs created by Cloth...

Including Australian native plant designs

I'm always curious about how people started their businesses, how they keep motivated, where they see the business going, how they balance creativity with the boring stuff like admin, all that sort of stuff. But as I didn't want to monopolise all her time I kept it brief, and what she told me I found both inspiring and disheartening.

Yes she loves what she does and wouldn't do it if she didn't. I can tell from her work that her heart's in it. Her inspiration seems endless and she appears to delve into all sorts of artistic pursuits. But, as expected, she said it took a long time until the business was really doing well, and it's an uphill slog to keep it that way, or something to that effect.


Small pieces of screen printed fabric in hemp and linen, and cute covered buttons...


... and a scrap bag ready to be turned into goodies - I'll show you what I end up making with it

My future work/life balance, career and family life is always on my mind. I know I can't go back to what I did BC (before children) as it's not family friendly enough, and also I don't want to - I'm ready for a change... but how do I try to be creative, look after the family and earn some money at the same time? That's my dilema. It was interesting to get Julie's opinion on having a creative business based on art and design. Plenty for me to think about...

If you have any tips or thoughts I'd love to hear them.

Ikea fabric love - no 3.

Just when I think I have an all-time favourite Ikea fabric another one comes along... I've made only bags out of this so far, but I'm thinking it would also make a great a great A-line skirt, a cuff (of course!) and maybe a cushion cover.

(below & above) A sort of overnight sized bag. Made to take my stuff to hospital when I went into labour with bub. Simple shoulder strap design with zip closure, lined in green cotton.



(below) The first baby bag I made. Lined with dark grey heavy cotton, and using recycled clips, buckle & zips. The fabric started to fade quite quickly with all that strong Australian sunlight from many hours spent in the park, so it's now on restricted use! (it's my favourite)





And a little zip purse lined with red light weight cotton and adorned with a ringed zip and little grosgrain tag.




The fabric
Heavy weight 100% cotton. It's another one from the "Gunilla" collection. The black background with bright flowers is so attractive to me... then add a bird or two and it's just perfect :-)

Colour trends - what is it with yellow?

Pages from Shannon Fricke's beautiful book "Sense of style - colour"

It's not so long ago that I disliked the colour yellow. In fact it's not too strong to say that I HATED it. I'd see a yellow car and think 'how could they drive that'! Or a yellow shirt - yuck! Maybe it's to do with the fact that yellow against my skin makes me look sick (I'm more the pink tone), unlike many of my family who have yellow based skin tone and look great in earthy colours and all the ones I don't. And also it had been out of fashion for ages. So I've always considered myself not a 'yellow person'...

Then I start seeing it popping up in things I've admired, coveted or even (gasp) own! It all started to make sense when I read a recent article in Insideout magazine which points out that yellow was Pantone's colour of the year for 2009 (Pantone, the world-renowned authority on colour ). Aha! The subconsious often works to trick us.


Yellow at home

I find it fascinating to see how trends work, how they filter through society and end up in our lives in many different ways. In my career as a graphic designer I've been exposed to all sorts of colour prejudice "Can you do it in pink? My wife likes pink" etc. It's pretty hard to escape a trend, even if you try hard ('you can run, but you can't hide', as they say). It can take people a while to embrace something new. I've heard lots of "I hate" statements that were later withdrawn (she says sheepishly) once a trend was fully embraced in our society.


Yellow in design
(top left Florence Broadhurst print cushions - photo InsideOut magazine, top right Eames rocker - photo Life Interiors, bottom left Ikea Trollsta sideboard, bottom right - photo InsideOut magazine)

So, viva la yellow! Please forgive me, I'll never say I hate you again (though you're still not welcome in my wardrobe - damn that pink-toned skin :-)

* have a look here for Pantone's colour of the year for 2010 - try to guess it before you look

Ikea fabric love - no 2.

Carrying on from the last Ikea fabric love post, here's another of my favourite prints, and another chair, this time the grown-up version. I loved covering this chair just as much as the other, and as I'm not as precious about this fabric I'll be happy to recover it in a different print when I get sick of this one. I think the whole chair only cost me about $30 in fabric, so a pretty small investment. It's quite a feature in the lounge room, and I must admit that when I'd finished it I wasn't sure if I liked it or not "is it funky or Nanna?" - not that Nanna's can't be funky!! It was 1am when I finished it afterall, maybe that had something to do with it. But I settled on funky, particularly after a couple of friends whose style I admire said they loved it (just call me a sheep).



Now this odd horse shoe-looking thing above you may know is a breast feeding pillow. I made it when pregnant with no. 3 from a pattern from the fabulous Lotta Jansdotter book Simple sewing for baby. With the first 2 babies I'd used a pillow or nothing and got sore shoulders with those numerous feeds that newborns demand. It was also intended to be used as a baby sitter type thing where it would support the baby and toys could be hooked into the ribbon tags I'd sewed into the outer edges. But alas my boy is not the sit there and ponder type and was off crawling soon after he sat up.

I also made an Amy Butler sun hat, which turned out OK but went a bit too floppy in the brim... more interfacing needed.



The fabric
Heavy weight 100% cotton. I think it was from the "Gunilla" collection. That's one thing about the Ikea fabrics, if you see something you like, buy some of it, as they change the range quite often. What I love about this print is the beautiful organic shapes. I don't know if they're based on real plants or not, but the shapes and colours are gorgeous and I never get tired of it.

Ikea fabric love - no 1.

I unashamedly love Ikea fabrics. Recently I read a post where a crafter noted that there seems to be a stigma about using Ikea fabrics. I think she's right but it's also crazy - in my opinion they are fantastic; they are generally made from cotton, the weight of many is heavy enough for projects around the home, it's very affordable and most importantly, there are some beautiful designs. So I thought I'd show you some of my favourites around our house.



The chair above was given to us (with another, both covered in white cotton), by our lovely next door neighbours when I was heavily pregnant with no. 3. As anyone who's spent time with a pregnant woman knows, she's generally a powerhouse of ideas and activity ("nesting"?), though physically it's hard as she's meant to be resting! Needless to say, I HAD to recover the 2 chairs at 39 weeks pregnant, and stayed up until about 1am two nights running to get it done. Hey, I wasn't going to be getting much sleep soon anyway! And here's one of the recovered chairs (show you the other later).

The fabric
Heavy weight cotton Dala Horse pattern. I bought a few meters of this fantastic fabric about 8 years ago just because I loved it (you know that feeling), certain that the right project would one day arise.



When my first baby arrived and I started to decorate her room I pulled it out of the stash and considered:
• curtains (no, fabric would spend most of it's time pushed to the side of the window, unable to be seen),
• cushions (no, not enough of the full illustrations would be seen)
• doona cover (no, fabric too heavy duty).



Then the chairs came along and bingo! I knew this was the project! I had to hold myself back long enough to A. buy upholstery tacks B. buy Scotchguard so that my hard work wouldn't be dirtied in 5 minutes and C. take a breath and think about how I would approach it. It ended up being incredibly easy and very satisfying, and most importantly I LOVE it.

I really strongly feel that it's good for us to live with things that we love looking at. Good for the soul!

* stripey curtain fabric in background also Ikea :-)

Bunny x 3

I love the process of designing something new. Often I don't think to use an existing pattern when I'm sewing, thinking that I can work it out myself (hmm), but this really does take so much time and I don't necessarily achieve what I set out to do without many hours spent, of which there are few when you've got small children. It can also be quite stressful! (I'll post another time about the dolls I made for the girls)

For easter this year I wanted to make the kids a bunny toy each and was starting to think of designs when I came across this lovely pattern by the fabulous Hop Skip Jump. In the interests of speed, consistency and sanity I quickly decided that this was the way to go and bought the pattern. In letting go of the crazy desire to do everything myself I learnt a lot and had fun too. There was certainly creativity involved in choosing the fabrics according to what I thought each child might like, and I embroidered each child's name onto the tummies to personalise them further. And on Easter morning the kids were delighted, so mission accomplished!